Tue Mar 31 1998 12:00:
Well, it's a big day. Big, big,
very large day. First off, Netscape source. Woo. I think so, anyway. I
can't find any information about it. Oh, good, this News.com
article tells me I'm not going crazy. I won't be able to immediately
do anything with the source, unfortunately, as I lack the neccessary
hardware.
Wait a minute. "unxbuild.htm"? What the heck kind of filename is that?
It's almost like [shudder] a Windows filename!
Also, today in California marks the beginning of electricity deregulation, the subject of my Engineering 95 report, which class I still have no grade in. What does this mean? Well, various sundry things. I don't want to go into it. I'm sick of discussing it.
Thirdly, today is Haydn's birthday. I pay tribute to him by spelling his name right.
Today's link: Li-Cheng "Andy" Tai's "Software Wars" drawing. Also check out Today's Space Weather, which I hit every day even though I don't really have any way to apply the information. Cool pictures of the sun, though.
Later: I just got an official email from the Chancellor (oooh) regarding the new crop of freshmen coming in next year. A lot of it is dedicated to discussing the effects of Proposition 209 on admissions. The following excerpt caught my eye:
Data also show a dramatic increase in the number of applicants who chose not to state their race or ethnicity. The number in this category nearly tripled, from 1326 last year to 4,264 for fall 1998. This year, UCLA edmitted 1,463 from this category, compared with 569 in fall 1997.
"The increase of applicants in this group makes it difficult to calculate precisely the ethnic breakdown of admitted students," Siporin said. "However, in the past, most of those who have chosen not to declare their race have been either Caucasian or Asian American."
Hard Questions People Ask Admissions Officers:
- How do you know?
- Doesn't making a guess devalue the purpose of the "undisclosed" option?
- If you found that someone had lied about their race, would you kick them out of school? Would you have done this before Proposition 209?
- Why don't Caucasians get "American" after their name? More importantly, why do African-Americans get a hyphen but Asian Americans get a space? Is this some cockamamie ANSI standard you are following?
